Shrimp farming in Vietnam : at the crossroads of sustainability

Shrimp farming in Vietnam was remained underdeveloped, in spite of good potential in terms of natural resources and farming area, when some Asian producing countries were facing serious environmental, technical and social collapses, known as the boom and burst of shrimp culture development. Lacks of investment, capital, technology and knowledge have been the main restrictive factors to the development of shrimp culture in Vietnam. The Doi Moi policy and institutional changes generated important factors facilitating large scale development by giving greater access to production factors. But the development of shrimp farming in Vietnam also took place at a time when debates about shrimp farming had been evolving through the introduction of new tools, concepts and methods, particularly in relation to the environmental and social impacts of the activity. After more that ten years of full development, Vietnam has become one of the most important producers on the international scheme. But while it is difficult to say if this development has fully matured, its sustainability is much more questionable. Learning from failures in other countries, accessing to better management over the uncertainties of production combined with a gradual decrease in prices, Vietnam is at a crossroads, torn between the temptation of pursuing a risky development as a source of foreign currency, and the need to place aquaculture at the core of local development and poverty alleviation at lower risk. The paper reviews this issue at the light of several international projects focussing on shrimp farming sustainability in Asia and particularly in Vietnam.